Senior Manager, Payroll Accounting

At Bristol Myers Squibb, our employees often ask, “Who are you working for?”—a question that fuels collaboration, accountability, and urgency in our work. Our purpose-driven culture inspires us to discover, develop, and deliver innovative medicines to prevail over serious diseases. We offer uniquely interesting and meaningful work, opportunities for growth, and a supportive environment that values inclusion, wellbeing, flexibility, and comprehensive benefits. This is work that transforms the lives of patients, and the careers of those who do it.

Senior Manager, Payroll Accounting

Global Financial Services | Record to Report

At Bristol Myers Squibb, we’re creating innovative medicines for patients who are fighting serious diseases. We’re also nurturing our own team with inspiring work and challenging career opportunities. No matter our role, each of us contributes. And that makes all the difference.

Position Summary

The Senior Manager, Payroll Accounting is responsible for leading the execution and operational performance of global payroll accounting activities, helping ensure accurate and timely financial reporting, strong controls, and high-quality delivery across the end-to-end payroll accounting process.

Based in Hyderabad, this role will provide senior operational leadership across payroll accounting activities, including period-end close, journal entries, accruals, balance sheet reconciliations, issue resolution, and reporting. The Senior Manager will partner closely with the Payroll Accounting Global Process Owner (GPO), Controllership, Country Controllers, People Services, Treasury, external payroll providers, and business process outsourcing partners to deliver consistent, well-controlled, and scalable payroll accounting operations.

The role will also play an important part in strengthening the global payroll accounting operating model through process standardization, automation, continuous improvement, and development of team capabilities.

Key Responsibilities

Payroll Accounting Leadership & Oversight

• Lead the operational execution of global payroll accounting activities in alignment with GPO-defined processes, accounting policies, and control requirements.
• Provide oversight across key payroll accounting activities, including compensation, benefits, journal entries, accruals, balance sheet reconciliations, and related financial reporting.
• Serve as a senior escalation point for payroll accounting issues, including ADP-to-SAP interface discrepancies, and coordinate resolution across appropriate stakeholders.
• Drive high standards of accuracy, timeliness, consistency, and accountability across payroll accounting operations.

Month-End and Quarter-End Close

• Lead payroll accounting period-end close activities and key financial reporting deliverables.
• Provide oversight of payroll-related journals, accruals, reconciliations, and other close activities.
• Monitor and escalate material issues that could affect close timelines, financial reporting, or control execution.

Business Partnership & Operational Excellence

• Partner closely with the Payroll Accounting GPO, People Services, Controllership, Country Controllers, Treasury, payroll providers, and business process outsourcing partners to resolve issues and strengthen end-to-end execution.
• Identify and drive opportunities for process standardization, simplification, automation, and continuous improvement.
• Support implementation of global process improvements and ensure sustainable adoption within operations.
• Use operational insights and performance indicators to identify emerging issues and improvement opportunities.

Risk Management & Controls

• Identify and communicate material operational, financial reporting, and control risks across payroll accounting.
• Coordinate appropriate remediation and contingency plans with relevant stakeholders.
• Maintain a strong control environment across payroll accounting activities and support compliance with applicable accounting policies, controls, and reporting requirements.
• Support internal and external audit requirements related to payroll accounting.

Leadership & Team Development

• Lead, coach, and develop team members, fostering a culture of accountability, collaboration, inclusion, and continuous learning.
• Serve as a senior subject matter expert for payroll accounting, partnering with stakeholders across Finance and Controllership to address complex and escalated matters.
• Establish clear priorities and expectations and hold the team accountable for quality, accuracy, and timely execution.
• Identify development and upskilling opportunities to build sustainable payroll accounting capabilities within the team.

Key Stakeholders

The Senior Manager will work across a broad global stakeholder network, including:

• Record to Report Global Process Owner leadership
• Payroll Accounting Global Process Owner
• Hyderabad Controllership leadership
• Record to Report Operations
• Business Controls
• Country Controllers
• People Services
• Treasury and Tax
• Business Unit Finance
• External payroll providers
• Business process outsourcing partners
• Internal and external audit stakeholders

Qualifications

Education

• Bachelor’s degree in Accounting, Finance, or a related field required.
• Master’s degree and/or professional accounting qualification such as Chartered Accountant (CA), CPA, or equivalent preferred.

Experience

• 8–10 years of progressive experience in accounting, financial reporting, payroll accounting, or related Finance operations.
• Demonstrated experience with Payroll Accounting, Record to Report, and/or Controllership processes.
• Experience with ADP strongly preferred.
• Experience with Workday or comparable HR platforms preferred.
• Pharmaceutical or life sciences Finance experience preferred.
• Experience operating in a global, matrixed environment and working with outsourced service providers preferred.

Knowledge, Skills & Capabilities

• Strong knowledge of payroll accounting, Record to Report, and Controllership processes.
• Strong working knowledge of SAP S/4HANA and payroll accounting interfaces; familiarity with ADP and payroll provider outputs strongly preferred.
• Strong analytical, problem-solving, and critical-thinking skills.
• Demonstrated ability to lead teams and drive results across complex, cross-functional processes.
• Strong stakeholder management and communication capabilities.
• Fluent English with strong written and verbal communication skills.
• Continuous improvement and transformation mindset.
• Ability to work effectively across geographies, cultures, and organizational boundaries.

Working Conditions

• Travel: Less than 5%
• Overnight travel: Not typically required
• Flexibility in working hours: Required to support collaboration with global stakeholders

We hire for skills and capabilities, not just credentials – if this role excites you, but doesn’t perfectly match your resume, we encourage you to apply anyway.

How We Work

Where you work matters – because collaboration, innovation and patient impact happen in many settings. Our roles are structured across four work models: site-essential, site-by-design, field-based and remote-by-design. The model assigned to this role is based on its core responsibilities. Learn more at https://careers.bms.com/ways-of-working.

Supporting People with Disabilities

BMS is dedicated to ensuring that people with disabilities can excel through a transparent recruitment process, reasonable workplace accommodations/adjustments and ongoing support in their roles. Applicants can request a reasonable workplace accommodation/adjustment prior to accepting a job offer. If you require reasonable accommodations/adjustments in completing this application, or in any part of the recruitment process, direct your inquiries to adastaffingsupport@bms.com. Visit careers.bms.com/eeo-accessibility to access our complete Equal Employment Opportunity statement.

Candidate Rights

BMS will consider qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records, pursuant to applicable laws in your area.

For roles based in Los Angeles County only:  If you live in or expect to work from Los Angeles County if hired for this position, please visit this page for important additional information: https://careers.bms.com/california-residents/

For roles based in Washington State only: If you live in or expect to work from Washington State if hired for this position, please visit this page for important information about the Washington Fair Chance Act.

Data Protection

We will never request payments, financial information, or social security numbers during our application or recruitment process. Learn more about protecting yourself at https://careers.bms.com/fraud-protection.

Any data processed in connection with role applications will be treated in accordance with applicable data privacy policies and regulations.

If this posting is missing required information required by local law or incorrect, contact BMS at TAEnablement@bms.com with the Job Title and Requisition number. Do not send application-related inquiries to this email. To check your application status, please login to your Candidate Home Account.

R1608058 : Senior Manager, Payroll Accounting